


Youswell

by RoyEdIsMyAesthetic



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Roswell (TV)
Genre: Adopted Children, Adoption, Alien Character(s), Alien Romance, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Bisexual Male Character, Bisexuality, Blood, Blood and Injury, Brotherly Bonding, Child Abuse, Diners, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Is Gay, F/M, Healing, High School, Homosexuality, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Music, M/M, Murder Mystery, Music, Mystery, Past Child Abuse, Restaurants, Roswell, Science Fiction, Shooting, Teen Angst, Waiters & Waitresses, Yaoi, de-aged Roy Mustang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-12 19:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9086758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoyEdIsMyAesthetic/pseuds/RoyEdIsMyAesthetic
Summary: Edward, Alphonse, and Winry, are survivors of the Youswell UFO crash, and were adopted by human families. Though the three successfully isolate themselves from the rest of their classmates through high school, their plans are disrupted when Edward uses his alien superpowers to save the life of an upperclassman. The two students are then linked in a way that even they don't quite understand.





	1. North and South

The white headlights of a dusty open-topped '94 jeep wrangler cut the night in two as easily as a knife through butter. The two dark haired young men in the front seats rode the bumps and potholes in the abandoned country road in silence, Kimblee gripping the wheel in white gloved hands while Archer held tightly onto the thick bar above him, scanning the landscape with his piercing pale blue eyes. 

They were a hunter's eyes really. Kimblee had a hunter's eyes too. 

In fact, they had just come back from a hunt and their guns and traps were piled up in the backseat, rattling as the car moved. Though they weren't looking for prey anymore, Archer studied the shadowy silhouettes of small trees and rolling mountains that stood tall against a flat plain of barren, cracked earth painted in shades of cobalt, sapphire, and indigo.

And then a small flash of brilliant white light blinked in the desert like a star fallen from the sky and settled on the earth. It was over in an instant, and just as Frank Archer began to doubt what he had seen, it flashed again, over in the blink of an eye. Still staring out into the landscape, he hurriedly put a hand on Kimblee's shoulder.

"Wait up!" Archer said loudly over the roll of the motor. "Pull over- I saw something!"

"It was probably a coyote!" Kimblee called over to him as he rounded a bend in the road. "They're all around these parts!"

"No, it wasn't an animal- it was a light- a flashing light," Archer said firmly. "Pull over."

Kimblee glanced over at his hunting partner, and the look on his face was all he needed to know that he was telling the truth. Something was out there, and it was something interesting. Secretly being easily bored by people, he lived for these interesting things. Things that only come out once in a blue moon- occurrences that cannot be repeated. And so, he decreased his speed, made a wide U-turn on the abandoned highway, and parked the car by a tangle of thorny underbrush. 

Kimblee turned the engine off and left the headlights on, following after Archer who immediately hopped out of the car and began to walk along the road, kicking up dust and rocks in his wake. With his hands in his pant pockets, Kimblee then watched as Archer paused and lifted his head as if to listen to the sound of crickets chirping.

"What is it?!" Kimblee called, jogging after him. He took out a flashlight and clicked it on, shining it on Archer's back as the man squatted down and gently touched something that lay on the ground. 

In just a moment, Kimblee was standing over him, and the corners of his lips bent into a frown as he shone the light on the small area of ground saturated by a dark substance that almost looked black in the moonlight. Archer patted the wet dirt with the tip of his pointer finger, and with narrowed eyes, he dabbed it on the tip of his tongue. Almost immediately, he made a face.

"Blood," he announced. His eyes followed the long stretch of blood that lay before him on the ground, eventually trailing off and disappearing. "And... there's just so much of it..." he muttered, wrinkling his nose.

Kimblee shifted his weight and tiredly scratched the back of his neck. "So are we heading back, or what?"

Archer didn't answer. Instead, he stood and wiped his hands off on his pants. "The light came from over there," he said, nodding his chin to desert at the other side of the road. "The blood disappears over here, and..."

His voice trailed off when he noticed Kimblee looking off into the distance, and following his eyes, he saw it too- a small shadowy form off in the distance, less than a quarter of a mile away. The two hunters got back into the jeep they had left close by and they slowly and carefully rolled away from the road, picking their way, weaving through short clumps of thickets, over flat land, and then around dried creek beds, guided the entire way by nothing but their headlights and the light of the moon. Both Kimblee and Archer sat in silence, aware of every shift of the sand and whistle of the wind. 

As they came closer, it became apparent that the figure was in fact human. Nothing more than a young child who stood naked with his slashed and bloodied back turned to the headlights of the car that rolled to a stop only a couple of yards behind him. 

"Fucking hell..." Kimblee breathed.

The blond was about fix or six years old. And he was only able to take one more shaky step forward before both he, and the bloodied remains of the equally small body he clung so tightly to his chest, fell hard to the ground. While on he knees, his shoulders trembled, and he doubled over the body of his unconscious elder brother whose blood stained his skin that was as pale as the moonlight itself. 

"Hello?!" Archer called, stepping out of the car.

It was then that Alphonse Elric finally turned his head, his wild eyes flashing a bright, and almost eerie, dandelion yellow in the headlights of their car, glistening in an almost sickeningly glossy way like the blood that seemed to cascade from his mouth and dribble over his chin and neck. It was as if it were he himself who had torn his brother's missing arm and leg from his body with his now crimson teeth. But his pleading eyes said otherwise.

"Please... help him..." he breathed softly, his lower lip trembling, "he's... he's going to bleed to death..."

Wide-eyed, Archer and Kimblee exchanged questioning glances before looking back at the child.

"Who are you, kid?" Archer questioned. "Where are you from?" 

He watched as Alphonse slowly and shakily peeled a hand away from Edward's body. Silently, he pointed a finger upward.

"What does that mean?" Kimblee asked, narrowing his eyes. "North? Liore?"

For the first time, a small smile spread across Alphonse's trembling lips.

"... _higher,_ " he whispered.

Pale fingers hurriedly turned the knob on a portable radio, raising the volume and blasting the opening riff of Caesar's song 'Jerk It Out'. Closing his eyes with an amused smirk on his face, the eighteen year old nodded his head in tune, joined by a slight sway of his shoulders as backup instruments were added. 

Without looking, Roy Mustang then picked one milkshake and one empty glass off of the nearby counter and strode across the floor of the themed diner to the table that he had been waiting, all the while enthusiastically mouthing the words to the upbeat song.

 _"Wind me up_  
put me down  
start me off and watch me go!"

He looked on as another server, Maes Hughes, passed by with a clean plate, nodding his head and mouthing along to the song as he adjusted the chrome alien head button that was pinned to the pocket of his dark blue button-down dress shirt.  _"I'll be runnin' circles around you sooner than you know!"_

Roy turned his head again, and in the moment that he did, he spotted a sixteen year old sitting in a booth against the wall littered with outer space themed decor, his long golden bangs hiding his face as he sipped his smoothie though a straw. With one gloved hand, he set the drink down, and with a playful smile, he nodded his head and sang softly to his younger brother who sat across from him. 

_"A little off center_   
_and I'm outta tune!_   
_Just kickin' this can along the avenue!"_

With a smirk, his golden eyes flicked over to Mustang. _"But I'm alright!"_

Quickly tugging his eyes away, Roy stopped in between his two customers- a dark haired woman with pink bangs and rugged looking young man who appeared to be her boyfriend.

"Here you go! One Blood of Alien Milkshake..." Roy said, setting the strawberry milkshake in front of the man, "and one Green Martian Shake!" he said, setting the empty glass down in front of the woman. "Sugar, hold the sugar, milk, hold the milk, shake... hold the shake! Would you like anything else?"

"Mmm... no, we're good!" Rose said cheerily. "I meant it as a joke, but.. you really are good at your job, aren't you?"

"Ha, thanks!" Roy replied, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyway, you're tourists, right? Are you two here for the Crash Festival? You know... the UFO crash?"

"You bet we are!" the man exclaimed happily, "We can't wait!"

"Well have fun, you two!" Roy said politely before turning around. 

"Want more coffee?" he heard the other server, Havoc, ask.

"No, get outta here," the customer growled before turning back to the burly man on the other side of the booth. "I don't wanna hear the words anymore, dammit! I wanna see the money on the table!"

Before Roy knew it, Hughes was at his side, casually slinging an arm over his shoulder as they walked together to the back of the diner. 

"Edward Elric's staring at you again!" Hughes said with a wide smile as he dragged Roy's shoulders down slightly. "Don't look!" he barked quickly as they stepped back behind the bar counter.

"You need to get your eyes checked, Hughes- get a different prescription or something! Edward Elric? _This?!"_ he said, pointing to himself." No way! No way in hell..."

"Roy-Boy, you've got the looks of an angel!" Hughes joked, wiping his hands off on a dish towel. "You're like if Paul Newman, Idris Elba, and Zac Effron got together and freely engaged in completely open, unrestrained, and incredibly hot, group sex! And had a baby!"

"A half  _Xinganese_ baby," Roy added, "But anyway, Edward's two grades below us, and besides... I'm going out with Hawkeye. She's steady and loyal, and well... she appreciates me. You wanted me to find someone who appreciates me, right?"

Hughes set down his towel and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "No offense to you or the woman... but it sounds like you're describing a dog. I'm serious here, I want you to be happy, Roy. So... are ya?"

"Table six wants another refill," Roy smiled with a slight shake of his head.

"Don't avoid the question!"

"Well don't avoid table six that needs a refill! I'm happy, Hughes. So go."

Hughes took a pitcher of lemon water in hand slowly backed away, grinning and lifting one eyebrow incredulously.

"I'm not gay!" Roy said defensively, lightly putting a foot down against the stained linoleum floor.

"If you weren't gay, you would have started out with the defense, 'OMG, Maes, I'm not gay! Who... _what_... in what world would I be gay?!' you would cry, but I'd tell you that it's alright!" he said, coming back and setting his elbows atop the counter. "We all have a gay thing! No big deal, we all do it, it's okay! No judgement, we're all god's children, we're all friends here, it's fine! I mean... I was gay once! Didn't work out as we all know! But it happened!"

Roy looked up and into the window that led to the kitchen, and there he saw an apron clad Armstrong lean down and wave slightly, smiling as sparkles glittered around his face. Hughes let out a slight chuckle of amusement and snapped his fingers once before pointing at the man.

"Yeah, I see you girl!" Hughes sang to Armstrong as he took the pitcher of water in hand once more.

More sparkles fluttered around the man's face. 

Roy probably would have smiled if not for a shout and the crash of a glass cup shattering on the floor that brought him on high alert. He whipped his head around as Jean Havoc shouted his name- fear evident in his voice. A guest shouted as the two burly older men in the corner booth suddenly stood, and one angrily took hold of the other's shirt collar in one hand.

"THAT'S YOUR PLAN?!" the man roared angrily, "Give it another day?! Well you're runnin' outta time!" he growled, reaching down and drawing a small handgun from the waistband of his pants.

Roy's eyes widened and his blood ran cold as the two began to fight for the firearm. "EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" he shouted over a crash of glass and a scream. 

And then the sound of gunfire seemed to rip Roy's eardrums in two in that very same second that a red hot bullet pushed itself through the flesh of his stomach and sent him collapsing to the floor.


	2. Hey Man, Nice Shot

The glass door of the diner banged against the wall as the two arguing men fled out the door, leaving panicked customer's scrambling to their feet. When Hughes looked over and saw Roy laying still on the floor, he scurried from his hiding place beneath one of the tables and made a move to rush to his friend's side, only to have Edward Elric step in front of him.

"You're his friend right?" the blond asked hurriedly, "Go! Go call an ambulance!" he said nodding his head to the telephone in the back.

Hughes swallowed thickly and then quickly walked away to make the call while Edward pushed up the sleeves of his leather jacket and jogged behind the counter, dropping down beside Roy's body on the floor. 

The raven haired teen looked up at him with a blood-drained face and glassy, fearful eyes as he opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water, trying to breathe, trying to speak, but failing as he clutched his stomach with one hand, blood dribbling through the spaces in between his trembling fingers. A pained cry and a sickeningly wet sound was heard as Edward pried away Roy's fingers and then hastily worked at undoing the silver star shaped buttons of the pinkish-purple vest he wore over his deep blue shirt.

"Y-You have... p-pretty eyes..." Edward suddenly heard Roy stammer softly in a slightly slurred voice.

"Yeah, I know, right?!" Ed replied, forcing a bright smile as he continued to work at the shirt buttons, "Santa got 'em for me last year! Not gay my ass; you ain't foolin' anyone..." he said, pulling the shirt open. 

Roy's eyes fluttered closed, and the smile on Ed's face disappeared when his golden eyes fell upon the circular bullet wound on Roy's abdomen upon which dark blood pooled. 

"Aw, geez..." Ed muttered, his face twisting with concern as he gently cupped Roy's cheek with one hand. "Roy?" he called desperately, "Roy?! Come on bastard, you have to open your eyes and look at me! This isn't just a firm suggestion, freak, you need to look at me for this to work!"

Letting out a shallow breath, Roy's eyes fluttered ever so slightly open. A hand gently patted his cheek as if to commend him for his actions. 

"Good boy," Edward muttered, looking Roy's body over. "Okay... it's gonna be okay..." 

A quiet clap was heard as the palms of hands were brought together. Edward then placed his hands down over the wound, sending Roy's back arching painfully off of the ground for a moment as tiny tendrils of electricity whipped and snapped through the air. Perspiration began to build up at the blond's brow and his body shivered at the effort and concentration he put into mentally finding the bullet lodged within his classmate's body, bending and twisting and tweaking the elements of the metal itself, making it melt and mesh with charred, torn muscle and skin. 

Ed clenched his teeth together as he bit back a cry,  taking on a part of Roy's pain as if it were his own, his body revolting against him as he struggled to breathe. Across his mind, there flashed images a younger Roy, a different Roy, a lonely Roy- a vision trapped inside of a memory encased fog overlaid by the heavy thudding of Roy's heart within his body, heard inside of another's mind. 

Edward's breath caught inside of his throat. With a quiet whimper, he finally surrendered and folded his body over Roy's. He then slowly lifted himself upright, looking at the spot where the bullet wound had been, but was no longer, though skin was still stained with the same blood that was on his own hands.

Roy and Ed's eyes met once more.

"There... there, you're alright," Ed breathed shakily, forcing a smile upon his face once more. "Piece of cake, right?"

Panic then washed over him when he heard the sound of police sirens screaming in the distance. 

"Brother!" he heard Alphonse call loudly. "Brother, let's go!"

Ed turned his head left and right. Doing a double take, he looked back over at the lower shelf behind the counter and swiped a glass bottle of ketchup, breaking the neck of the bottle against the edge of the shelf before hastily spilling the contents onto Roy's abdomen, scrambling to his feet as he let the rest of the bottle shatter against the floor. 

"You- you broke the bottle, and you fell, and you spilled ketchup on yourself," Ed said quickly, backing away. "Don't say anything. Please!"

Hughes rushed to Roy's side as he finally sat up, looking on with onyx eyes wide as Edward ran out of the sunny Crash Down Diner, throwing Roy an over-the-shoulder glance before hopping into a busted-up 1990 Land Rover where Alphonse and Winry Rockbell waited. 

Together, the three teens sped off in the opposite direction of the police cars with Al at the wheel and Winry in the passenger seat, clutching Al's very unamused, very old, very fat, very angry looking calico cat to her chest as Filter's 'Hey Man, Nice Shot' played softly on the radio.

"What the hell happened?!" Winry cried with concern, looking back at Edward and then over to Alphonse. "Are you two alright?!"

"Oh yeah, we're fine," Al replied calmly, turning off onto the highway. "There was a shooting. Well actually, there was a fight, and then a gun went off accidentally. And Ed stepped in and saved that waiter who has a crush on 'im."

"Bastard Waiter?" Winry questioned, looking at Ed and narrowing her eyes that were an identical shade of gold. "The guy from school who accidentally gave Ed a milkshake once, got drunk at prom, and dry humped Miles on the dance floor but was too drunk to remember it?"

"That's the one!" Alphonse said happily. "Well Bastard Waiter got shot in the stomach and Ed used his powers to heal 'im!"

The cat, Mr. Binklebee, meowed loudly and twitched his whiskers in protest as Winry hugged him tighter, her face turning an angry shade of red. 

"I can't believe this, Ed!" she shouted, practically turning all the way around in her seat to look at a disinterested Edward. "I finally think that I have a quasi-normal existence and you blow it all with one random act of... of... _IDIOCY!_ Al, how could you let your brother do this?!"

"Don't turn this around on me!" Al said, lifting a hand defensively. "I'm not the one who thinks he's a superhero! Ed, I'm glad that you saved that guy..."

"Roy," Ed corrected. "His name is Roy."

" _Roy._ But... well, we made a deal, Brother."

"But I kept it under wraps!" Ed argued, leaning forward and putting a hand on the back of Winry's seat. "No one else saw, and therefore, no one else will find out! _Logic!_ Bastard Waiter is a bastard waiter, but that doesn't mean that he can't keep a fucking secret! If he doesn't keep it to himself, all it means is that he wants his dick. Shoved in a blender. Set on puree."

"You say that no one else will find out, but the deal was that we lay low," Alphonse continued, "We don't tell _anyone_ our secret, no matter what the situation. And we don't use our powers in public like this! At this rate, if we don't want to get caught by the government and... _studied,_  or whatever else they do..."

"Probed and get the butt thing..." Edward muttered looking off to the side.

 "Well, we... we might have to leave. We might have to leave Youswell and move somewhere else..."

"But we can't!" Winry objected, "Youswell is our home!"

Edward sat back in his seat and ground his teeth in annoyance before turning his head and looking out at the passing desert landscape. "Pinako found you out in the desert," he said firmly, "She's good to you! But Archer?! Al and I's foster father?! He just keeps us around for the monthly check. Everybody just keep on doing what you're doing. Keep your heads down and act normal. And we'll be alright," he said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "...just as we've always been. And just was we always are."

With his head bowed, Roy Mustang uncrossed his arms and hopped up onto the bar table of the nearly empty Crash Down diner. He glanced furtively over at the purple-eyed, long-haired dish washing boy, Wrath, who was cleaning busy mopping the floors. Finally, his eyes turned to Hughes who stood in front of him looking on with concern as he slipped his hands in his pant pockets.

"Roy, what is it that you wanted to show me?" the bespectacled teen questioned, "Don't tell me that you really are hurt and you aren't telling me... right? You can tell me anything. Anything at all."

"Hughes? I... I want you to take a look at this..."  

Silently, Roy slowly peeled open his ketchup, and secretly bloodstained, vest and button-up shirt, revealing pale skin that had been wiped clean. But on the skin just below his rib cage where he had supposedly been shot, there was inscribed a circle, enclosing a series of ornate markings, all shining a glimmering unearthly copper like a penny in the sun, seemingly moving, and seemingly alive. 

Unnatural. 

With head still bowed, Roy gingerly touched his fingers to the edge of the circle. "I don't know how it got there, Hughes," he whispered, lifting his head. "I don't know. The only explanation is that _He_ put it there."

Roy studied Hughes' confused face, and then his searching eyes were torn away with the shutting of the diner's front door as Wrath suddenly left.

The door to the sheriff's private office squealed as the deputy sheriff, Sig, opened it with a cordless telephone in hand. 

"Sheriff Curtis?" he called to the dark haired woman sitting at the single desk in the small, dimly lit room. "Your son's on the line. He says that he knows something about the waiter at the Crash Down? The waiter who fell earlier?"

"Yes, I'll take it," Izumi said, standing up from her chair and reaching for the phone. "Thank you, Sig."

After the phone was out of his hands, Sig was free to leave the room, and Izumi was left to pace in circles around the bookshelf and file cabinet-lined office with the phone to her ear.

"Wrath. How are you, my darling?" she said sweetly with a smile. She lowered her head and continued to pace, listening intently as her son spoke. Her dark eyes narrowed with confusion. "A circle? Did you see what it looked like?"

Izumi then strayed off from her path and went to a metal filing cabinet in the corner, tucking the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she drew one drawer open and began rummaging though the collection of dusty folders inside. When she didn't find what she was looking for, she opened the drawer above it.

"And it was on his stomach?" she questioned, taking out a folder and setting it upon her desk. "Like in area where the hole in Mustang's shirt is. Where the bullet couldn't have hit, because there was no bullet. And no wound..." she added in a low voice as took a series of photographs out of the file.

With lips slightly parted, she let her son's talking fade into the background as she carefully shifted through the pictures on her desk- some recent and some older. But all the same. 

Men, women, and children laying prone with their hands at their sides- all with those same mysterious circles embedded into the skin at their chests or stomachs. The ornate linework  of these markings shone a glimmering copper-gold on the deceased figures as they lay in the synthetic lights shining upon the autopsy table- all found dead with no apparent cause but that otherworldly circle.

Izumi smiles softly and lifted her eyes to the small window at the corner of the room just as the Elrics' car drove by, coming back into town. 

"Thanks for telling me, dear. Stay safe out there."


	3. I Won't Lie to You

The eerie and almost haunting thrum of Morphic Field's 'I Won't Lie to You' played softly on the radio indoors while unblinking beryl-green eyes seemed to glow in the dark outside, pupils long and thin like the length of a sewing needle. The pair of eyes slowly moved this way and that, as if they followed the tilting of a head, while in the shadows, a head could not be seen. A head could not be seen, but still, the peculiar creature slowly grinned, its pearly broken-glass teeth gleaming in the moonlight as it continued to sway its head in an almost hypnotic way- the great snake Kaa's eyes seducing the unsuspecting child and leading him to his demise.

 Light flooded over the doorstep and the calico cat's form as Alphonse opened the front door. The blond gathered his beloved cat up into his arms and carried him indoors, petting his head and speaking to him in a low voice. 

"You can come inside for tonight, but you need to stay out of out way for a while, okay Mr. Binklebee? Ed has important work he needs to do."

Kimblee had gone out with some of his drinking buddies for the night, and so Ed, Al, and Winry knew that they had the stuffy run-down mobile home they shared all to themselves, at least for a couple of hours until the man stumbled back drunk. And angry.

The three teens sat in a circle on the small bed that Ed and Al had shared since they were young. Ed sat cross legged in the middle wearing only a t- shirt and a pair of shorts, his automail gleaming dully in the pale glow of the light bulb that hung from a string above. With his flesh hand, he carefully leafed through a Youswell High yearbook from the school year past, looking for a specific face while sweat dripped down his forehead in the almost suffocating summer heat.

Winry shifted nervously atop the creaky bed springs, fiddling with the hem of her black pleated skirt. "I know that Alphonse can't do this," she said quietly to Ed, "his powers are too strong- he would hurt Roy or maybe even himself. But if you feel uncomfortable... I can walk for you. I can walk through Roy's dreams and his memories, and I can determine whether or not we can trust him."

"No, it's alright. I want to fix this," Edward replied calmly, smoothing over a page featuring the school's men's lacrosse team. "I'm the one who got us into this mess. I'm the one who'll do it."

With a halfhearted smile, Edward took Winry's hand and squeezed it reassuringly before looking over at Alphonse, throwing him the same small smile. He then lowered his head and ghosted his fingers over the team photograph in the yearbook, finally hovering over Roy's smiling face that was frozen in time.

Ed used his free hand to smooth back the golden bangs that stuck to the sweat on his forehead, and then he straightened his back and took in a deep breath.

"Okay. I'm ready," he finally announced, with a shallow nod. "I'm ready..."

Keeping his breaths slow and steady, Edward gently touched the tip of his index finger to the picture of Roy, keeping his gaze transfixed on the air straight ahead of him as the light bulb above began to flicker on and off, sending the three teens into brief spells of darkness that reflected the panic they held close to their chests. 

Alphonse kept his eyes trained on his brother's passive face. No matter how many times they had experimented with this, it didn't make it any less scary- Edward's blank stare and the way that those eyes glazed over as the light began to pulse like strobe lights, showing them only snapshots of happenings. But still, Alphonse was able to watch as Edward's head slowly fell backward and his golden eyes rolled to the back of his head so that only the whites were seen.

Al quickly came forward and caught his elder brother in his arms just as he was about to fall forward, and the flickering of lights stopped as soon as his fingers touched the fabric of Edward's cotton shirt. Whispering words of comfort, he gently rested Ed's sleeping body back onto the pillows and then lovingly brushing his bangs back into place. 

Though he was laying flat on his back and his his hands were places unnaturally at his sides, Ed's face seemed almost relaxed. The only sign of disturbance that could be seen was the occasional fluttering of his eyelids as he walked and shifted through the unconscious of another.

A minute or two of silence and goosebumps rising up on bare skin passed before Al's pale fingers stopped toying Ed's hair and a sinking of the stomach was felt when a muttering was heard overlapping the humming of the electric light above. Al quickly removed his hand and cupped one of Ed's cheeks, looking at his moving lips, trying to make out what was being spoken.

"No... no..." Edward mumbled softly in his sleep, his brow crinkling and his eyes shutting more tightly as he turned his head to the side. "No, no, no... no... no..."

"He's... he's never spoken before..." Winry whispered, panic evident in her voice as she put a hand atop Ed's which gripped the bed sheets in a clenched fist. "He goes to sleep and he wakes up when he touches the picture again- that's how it works- that's how it's always worked! Has... has this ever happened to you before, Al?!"

"No, never!" Alphonse replied quickly with a shake of the head. 

Al tilted his head back and looked up at the light bulb that hung above, the humming emanating from it growing louder as it's brightness increased at a rapid pace. Breathlessly, he looked down at his elder brother whose face, wet with tears, finally twisted with pain as the back of his skull dug down into the surface of the mattress.

"Winry, get the book!" he cried, "Get the book now!"

Winry scrambled to get the still open yearbook from the edge of the bed. Quickly, she then lifted one of Edward's hands and placed his palm atop the photograph, but to her horror, her friend showed no sign of waking. Ed's back arched up off of the mattress and he let out a soundless cry as the light above flickered on and off and then finally shattered, drowning the three teens in darkness. A shout of surprise was drawn out of Winry's throat and an almost ear-spilling scream of terror ripped itself of Edward's mouth as he bolted upright, gasping for air with tear-filled eyes wide.

Almost immediately, Alphonse gathered his violently trembling brother into his arms, pulling him to his chest and letting him ride out the tremors and and violent gasps for air that assaulted his body.

"Shhh..." Al hushed loudly, placing his chin atop Edward's head and gently rocking his brother's form back and forth. "Shhh, it's alright. You're back... you're back..."

Slowly and steadily, the shaking went away, and Ed's breathing began to return to normal.

"We can trust him..." Edward croaked hoarsely into the fabric of Al's shirt, "We can trust him..."

"Roy doesn't matter right now," Al said, glancing up at a worried Winry, "All that matters is that you're alright. What happened to you?"

"What did you see, Ed?" Winry questioned, speaking for the first time in a long while. "What the hell did you see that could have caused... well, _that?_ "

"It was nothing," Edward breathed, pushing him away from Al's hold. 

Alphonse and Winry watched as Edward then scooted over and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Anxiously carding his fingers through his hair, he stumbled through the inky darkness that consumed the mobile home and then leaned over the nearby bathroom sink, balancing his forearms on its edge, his form illuminated by the pale blue light which trickled in through the small window above. 

"What did you see, Brother?" Alphonse questioned quietly. 

The faucet squeaked as it was turned on, and Edward closed his eyes as he quickly splashed water onto his face, not minding as the ice cold liquid tracked trails down his neck and forearms. With a groan, hands were slowly drawn down over face, and the sound of his voice bounced back and forth against the walls of Youswell High's abandoned gym locker room. Then with a sigh, Edward laced his fingers behind his neck and finally looked up at the mirror hanging above the sink, his gaze meeting that of Roy Mustang who was leaning against the line of lockers against the far wall.

"We need to talk," Roy said in a calm, cool voice, pushing himself off of the wall and setting himself down on the long wooden bench in front of it. "I think you know what about."

Edward eyes upon his back as he rubbed a wet hand over the back of his neck and then tugged at the hem of his sweaty shirt, the fabric hushing the world quiet as it was pulled over his head of loose blond hair. With the shirt in hand, he ambled over to the locker room door at Roy's side, turning the privacy lock with a quiet click, all the while, feeling eyes boring holes through his bare skin.

"What are you, Roy Mustang?" Edward questioned, looking down at the lock. "What have you done to me?"

"I'm human," Roy replied curtly, "And what are you?"

Roy watched as a small and almost mischievous smile spread across Edward's face. To his surprise, the blond began to quietly chuckle to himself as he stepped away from the door and approached him.

"You're... you're _not_ human," Roy concluded with wonder. He stared at Ed as if he could disappear at any moment.

"No. Not at all," Ed said with a shake of his head as he lowered himself down onto the bench beside Roy who narrowed his eyes with confusion.

"Where do you... where do you come from?" he asked. "Do you come from where I'm starting to think you come from?"

Edward froze. And hesitantly, he raised a hand and pointed a finger up at the ceiling.

"Up north? Liore?" Roy guessed.

Edward motioned his hand upward. "Higher."

"Ed, you're not saying what I think you're saying... _are you?_ You're not an... an..."

It was in that moment that one of the lockers to their left burst open, the metal door banging loudly against the closed locker beside it. Both Ed and Roy whipped their heads around as Hughes stepped out with a cry of shock and disbelief.

" _YOU'RE A CANADIAN?!_ "

A red-faced Edward shot up from his seat, looking ready to take Roy by the collar and strangle him right then and there. "YOU _TOLD_ HIM?! I specifically told you not to tell anybody, bastard!"

"HOLY SHIT, I'VE NEVER MET A _CANADIAN_ BEFORE!" Hughes said, putting his hands to his head.

"Which brings us to the important question..." Roy said calmly, lifting a finger. "If _you're_ Canadian... and _we're_ not Canadian... _THEN WHO'S FLYING THIS PLANE?_ " he joked with a smirk.

Hughes came up behind Roy and bent over at the waist, balancing his elbows atop Roy's shoulders as a playful smile danced upon his lips. "Let me get this straight right here, right now- I ain't jumpin' without a parachute!"

"I'M NOT A CANADIAN, I'M AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL!" Ed shouted, stomping a foot down.

Roy and Hughes went silent.

"Truth is, I don't know where the hell I'm from! When the ship crashed, I wasn't even born yet!"

"So there was a crash," Hughes said, now with genuine interest.

"All I know is that it wasn't a stupid weather balloon that crashed that night."

"But you're sixteen," Roy chimed in. "The Youswell UFO crash that the government covered up... it was in 1947."

"We were in some kind of incubation pods in the middle of the desert," Ed said, letting his back fall gently against the row of lockers. "Alphonse and Winry are also... you know. Like me. It can be difficult sometimes, but we're trying to improve the abilities that we were born with. We can... we can _connect_ with people in different ways. We can manipulate molecular structures- that's how I healed you, but we don't understand the true potential of these powers. And no one can help us. No one knows who we are or where we're from- not even our foster parents. We sorta kinda think that our lives depend on keeping it a secret from... well from the rest of the world."

Roy shifted in his seat and folded his hands in his lap, looking up at Edward curiously. "So when you healed me.. you risked all of this getting out, didn't you? So... so why did you?"

Roy watched as Edward lowered his had and gently scratched the back of his neck in almost the way that a shy person does when they're complimented and feel a blush coming on.

"Well..." Ed said, lifting his eyes. When his gaze met Roy's a sheepish smile touched his lips. "Well, because it was you, Roy."

There was a silence.

Hughes looked back and forth from Roy to Edward and back again. He grinned. "Aw, look... Roy-boy's blushing!" he gushed.

"I'm not!" he protested, smacking Hughes in the shoulder. "Ed, I know that this might not be the right time..."

Recognizing the change in Roy's tone and the subtle hint of urgency in his voice, Edward could tell that the man had something important to say. With a nod of the head, Edward urged him forward.

"The mark on my stomach. Do you know what it is?"

"It's harmless- it occurs when we expend a good deal of energy- such as the energy it takes to patch up a bullet wound. It's a sort of... residue- a sort of unique burn that... that fades away in a couple of days. It's only ever happened two or three times with us."

"Well someone saw the burn," Roy said quickly. "We think it was our coworker at Crash Down- the sheriff's son. This morning I was late to school because Sheriff Curtis called me in and she asked me where I had gotten it from- I didn't tell her. But she showed me these... these pictures of a corpse. Daria Poer. And she had the same sort of marking over her chest, and because there were no other causes of death, maybe.. just maybe... it was because of this great... energy. But that was back in 1967."

The blood drained from Edward's face. "No, we couldn't have done that- we would never do something like that! It's impossible!"

"I know, I know, the point is that Curtis knows that you were at the diner and she found my blood on the floor. She... she suspects you, Edward. And most likely, she's gonna target your brother next."

For a moment, Edward simply stood there, processing the information he had been given. And then finally, the sickening churn in his stomach told him to move. Without a word, he went to his locker, took out a clean t-shirt, and hastily pulled it over his head as he jogged to the door.

"Ed?! Where are you going?!" he heard Roy call as he unlocked the privacy lock.

"Whatever I say, you seem to think the opposite," Ed said quickly as he swung the door open. "But I'm taking a leap here and telling you not to follow me."

With that, Edward stepped into the hall. 

"Let's wait five minutes, and then follow him," Ed heard Hughes say from inside the locker room.

Classes were over and the corridor was empty except for a group of students who jogged by wearing cheap plastic alien masks and astronaut costumes, obviously on their way to the Crash Festival that was going to be held later that evening on the school's football field.

Soon enough, a young man with a rather garish rubber alien mask tucked underneath one arm jogged over and began to walk beside Edward.

"You were listening in, weren't you, Al?" Edward said accusingly, not looking over at his brother. "From that stupid grate in the corner of the room..."

"Edward, stop," Alphonse said gently, taking a hold of one of his wrists.

Edward reluctantly did as he was told and stopped walking, tiredly leaning his back against the row of lockers to his right as if it were the only thing keeping him standing.

Alphonse wet his lips and cautiously looked up and down the hall before speaking. "Did you even see Roy?" He questioned in a hushed tone. "When you walked?"

Edward slowly blinked, the look on hos face almost wistful as he tucked a stray lock of hair behind his ear.

"Yes," he finally breathed, his voice barely louder than a whisper. "Yes, I did. He had a lonely childhood until Hughes moved into town. He's good at chemistry. He accidentally set fire to the Crash Down's kitchen once. He has a thing for me- he thinks I look cute... or something. He thinks I'm smart and he likes the way I smile. His..." 

Edward paused. And looking down at his shoes, he smiled. "His favorite band is Foreigner and his favorite song is 'Hot Blooded'."

"You love that song!" Alphonse chuckled.

"Yeah. Yeah, I really do..."

"But what else did you see?"

Edward's smile fell. Something was bothering him, and Alphonse could tell. "Something went wrong," Ed muttered with his head still bowed. "Something backfired..."

"What did you see?" Alphonse pressed in a firmer tone.

Edward let out a shallow shaky breath, tucking his chin down and letting his bangs fall over his cheeks as if he didn't want to be seen. As if he were hiding. And perhaps, he was. 

"I... I saw myself," he whispered shakily. "I... I watched myself... I watched myself murder that girl- Daria Poer. And I have _absolutely_ no memory of doing it."   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Hot Blooded' is their song if you haven't noticed. At least, it is in the fanfic 'Double Majoring' and somewhere else too (I think). 
> 
> I usually try to keep my chapters over 1000 words long, but under 2000. Unless it's for some... external reasons... but anyway, this was over 3000 words long, which was why it was so difficult for me to finish (and also, it was an info dump). If you find spelling mistakes, it's because I typed it on my phone.


End file.
